I happen to live in Pennsylvania, and recently learned that our state actually does permit certain kinds of gambling: it permits betting on horse races, as well as slots-only casinos.

Since I am relatively new to the US, I'm wondering about the idea behind such limited policies. Why are table games different than slots? I mean, it made sense when you actually had to manually shove nickel after nickel into the slot machine, becasue that naturally curbed your gambled amounts. But now that slots happily chug 20$ and 100$ bills, and some slots have 50 pay lines and whatnot, it seems that you can go through as much money gambling slots as you can in low-limit BJ tables. Are table games considered more "corrupting" or something?

Sorry for the off-topic rant, I'm just having a difficult time understanding the rationale behind this, and I admit to a certain aversion to games that don't even require concentration.

SLpgh.......you make me laugh. "I happen to live in Pennsylania, ..."Did you recently move to Pittsburgh? Just curious...It will get better without absent another opportunity.

Take care, Jim

Actually I did. Well, not that recently, about a year back, although I spent a few months living in Boston and NYC. I still find PA terribly backward, like having to go to a special store to buy wine, etc.

Here's an interesting one ... I went to a casino in North Carolina, and everyone playing blackjack was seated at a table looking into individual vido screens. The dealer (who also had a screen) "dealt" by pressing a button. It was WEIRD! ... and not very enjoyable at all. Who knows how the machines were programmed.

I asked a dealer where the live blackjack tables were, adn she told me that it's a state law in NC that the only blackjack allowed is video BJ.

I remember hearing something once about certain states forbidding "games of skill"... Maybe that's why BJ is not allowed, but that does not explain banning roulette (is there a real issue of skill in roulette?)

Some do the opposite, as in Alabama. Games of "skill" are allowed, but pure games of chance (normal slots) are not... And then there are no table games of any kind allowed here at all, which seems like a contradiction... yet you can bet on horses and dogs all you want. :)